I’ve been preparing training manuals for the ladies’ ministry I head and the Lord led me Isaiah 55. I’ve been praying and studying it and I’ll just highlight verses 1 and 2 (AMP):
“1. Wait and listen, everyone who is thirsty! Come to the waters; and
he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Yes, come, buy (priceless, spiritual)
wine and milk without money and without price (simply for surrender that accepts
the blessing.
2. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your earnings for what does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat
what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness (the profuseness of
spiritual joy.”
Thing is, everybody is thirsty. We all have voids in our
heart and we go ‘buying.’ We buy and buy and enthrone things and people in our
hearts that sap our strength and value. We place our peace on the altar of junk
food and cotton candy (as the Message Version puts it). we do so much to fill
that void. Whatever it is - food, clothes, men, gyming, achievements, sex,
popularity cannot fill that God-sized void in your heart. The digger we deep,
the bigger the hole and the emptier we feel. It is a vicious cycle.
C.S Lewis says something profound in The Screwtape Letters:
“The
creatures are always accusing one another of wanting to eat the cake and have
it; but thanks to our labors they are more often in the predicament of paying
for the cake and not eating it.”
We run away from God. We hide our sin, failure, weaknesses and pain
from the very one we should bare it all to. Our father, Adam started this trend
and we are steep in the walk. God tells us to ‘come anyway.’ He’s calling out to
us to come with our deepest aches, fears and desires. We think we don’t deserve
all the mercy and grace He’s offering and we settle for less and keep buying
empty cheap nothings. We think it’s good enough because we can pay for it; with
our bodies and looks, with our degrees and achievements, with our talents and
money.
But thank God for Jesus! He has paid the ultimate price. God is
calling out to every of His girls, to come anyway because Jesus has paid the
full price. Jesus has met all the standards we’ll ever need to meet.
Proverbs 10:22 makes us aware that God’s blessings comes with no
sorrows, no hidden policies, no traps, no tears. Is God asking for something in
return? Yes. He is asking for you to listen to Him and surrender.
Verse 3 of Isaiah 55 (AMP) says:
“Incline your ears (submit and
consent to the divine will) and come to Me; hear, and your soul will revive and
I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercy (kindness,
goodwill and compassion) promised to David.”
Many people just slather on
the finished work of Jesus on the cross like a body wash and don’t move on from
there. While there is nothing wrong with that, there’s so much more. Jesus
didn’t just come to save you. He came to save you for a specific purpose: to
return you back to the state of continual eternal fellowship with the Father.
Adam fell and God couldn’t be in relationship with man, Jesus came to restore
that broken link. The death of Jesus was an act of courtship. When we accept His
offer of salvation, we are entering a covenant of love, kindness, goodwill and
compassion.
It’s like marriage. You enter a marital relationship with
responsibilities, one of which is to submit. You submit your will, your desires,
your body, your emotions. Whenever the person of the Holy Spirit nudges your
heart, you listen and obey. You can for His direction, His plans.
Even before God created the Garden of Eden, God had planned every 90
seconds of your life. Psalms 139 tells me that. He knew every hair that was
going to fall off your head. He knew everything you were going to say before
you thought it. He doesn’t plan your life on the go and adjusts when
circumstances crop up. There is a book in heaven with your name of the cover and
it contains all the good plans God has for you.
Sweetheart, God is asking you to come to the place of oneness and
fellowship. He’s asking you to drop all the baggage and surrender. There’s no
standard you need to meet, no requirement to fulfill. Just come as you are and
buy for free!
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